Riga Round 15: Germany v Switzerland and Belgium v Denmark

Germany v Switzerland: Score 30-32 IMPs

Board 21

Notice that 3N and 4S by South go down on a club lead, while 4S makes North since the NS club holding would be protected. Barring a heart lead from AJx (which would be odd if West didn't bid), 3N by North makes as well. Let's see if some pair right sides this one:

West (Klukowski)	North (Fritsche)	East (Kalita)	South (Reps)
	1D	2C	3C
P	3D	P	3N
All Pass

With a minimum hand, Fritsche signed off in 3D, but South's hand was too good to not reach game, and took a shot at 3N. Kalita's 2C bid was great in terms of lead directing for partner: on a club lead, declarer went down 1. Seems like a normal result, being a little unlucky for the NS pair. Will the other table fare better?

West (Schwerdt)	North (Multon)	East (Linde)	South (Zimmermann)
	P	1C	1D
P	1S	P	2C
P	3D	P	3S
P	4S	All Pass

With the two queens wasted in the side suits, Multon passed. His 1S bid seems a little strange, though he could be trying to find a 4-4 or 4-3 major fit to play in instead of 3N. With his 5-card diamond support and great spade quality, 4S could very well fare better than 3N, even with only a 7-card fit. After Zimmermann bid 3S, North raised to 4 and played there. With the 3-3 spade split, the contract was cold from his side. At the end of the day, he right sided it: even if the NS pair got to 3N, as long as North was declaring it, they would likely make since East is very unlikely to find the killing heart lead. This board netted 12 IMPs to Switzerland.

Right-siding is sometimes just luck. In general, it is better to have the person with values in the suit to be on lead. This way, they have to lead away from their high cards, potentially costing a trick. Nevertheless, the suit holder's partner could still have high cards; that's why holdings including the Q and K should still strive to declare, even if the lead would go through dummy.

Note that 5D is down 1 as well: with no great distribution, 5m is typically not advised, since if you can't get enough tricks in 3N, you likely can't get enough in 5m either. If a suit runs against 3N, the defense will take 2 top tricks against 5D, making the rest of the hand really hard to play.

Board 29

Both sides reached 3N by South in similar auctions, with North opening 1H.

The "normal" lead would be a 4th best diamond: this is what was led against the Swiss declarer. South now had many options: not wanting to lose the lead to East (otherwise he could play a diamond through his AJ), he decided to set up hearts. Declarer ducked a heart to West, and when West came back with a diamond, he now had 8 tricks. It seems inevitable that a club finesse would net the ninth trick. However, perhaps not seeing the entry problems, South cashed the HA, crossed to dummy with a spade, and played HK and another heart, setting up the 5th heart. The problem is that despite having a winner, the North hand now had no entries: when West won the 4th heart and cleared diamonds, declarer was one trick short, and West cashed his diamonds when he got in with his CA. The defense took 2 hearts, 2 diamonds, and 1 club for down 1.

At the other table, the Swiss West led the 6 of hearts! Knowing the QJT might be important spots that are too important to spend and knowing declarer wouldn't play him for the holding if he led low, West made a tricky lead. The heart lead also may very well be the killing lead: if declarer hops the king and partner has the ace, EW can run 4 heart tricks and the ace of clubs, beating an otherwise cold contract.

With the lead, declarer simply worked on clubs and made 10 tricks for +630 and 12 IMPs to Germany.

Belgium v Denmark: Score 34-27 IMPs

Board 27

Both North-South pairs ended up in 4S, but the card play is where it really starts to get interesting.

At the Belgian table, South was declarer and recieved a club lead: 3, T, Q, A. West won the second spade, East pitching a diamond. He then returned a diamond, won in hand. After a heart to the J, East won the ace and continued diamonds, but it was already over: declarer finessed hearts agan and ruffed a heart in his hand, ending up conceding 2 spades and 1 heart. Seems like a normal line with normal defense, but at the other table, interesting things began to happen.

This time, North was declarer. A club was also led, this time won in dummy by the A. Declarer proceeded with 2 rounds of trumps, East pitching a club. When West got in, he continued a club, forcing declarer to ruff in dummy. Declarer now crossed in diamonds, and played a heart to the J ... ducked! What did this duck accomplish? Well, it sets up for the coming defensive triumph.

Declarer now crossed in diamonds again and finessed hearts again. When East won the ace this time, West had no more diamonds left: East then simply gave West a diamond ruff, where after the last trump, declarer was stuck with a heart loser in dummy. Down 1 and 10 IMPs to Belgium.

So what went wrong? The diamond ruff served as communication for the EW pair: West needed to draw South's last trump to prevent a heart ruff. However, if he plays spades by himself, the diamond suit can run, hence why a club force was necessary. Now we see East's duck come in handy: since declarer's only entries to hand are diamonds, East had to hope partner could ruff a diamond as entry. If West had 2 diamonds (as he did on this hand), ducking was essential to make declarer play another diamond, opening West up to a ruff before the heart suit is cleared. Great defense from the Belgian EW pair to defeat this seemingly cold contract.

So where did the other table fall short? After the diamond discard, East could not play a third diamond for West to ruff. Additionally, because South was declaring, West couldn't safely continue a club to force dummy. These important distinctions killed the defense's chances: in fact, declarer could've just cleared trumps to make on this layout, though that isn't advised since if East has the CK, declarer is in trouble.

Board 31

With a misfit for both sides, it will be interesting to see how the pros handle this one. Although NS have game values, the only game that makes is 3N. This seems likely to reach with no fit between them, but EW will get in the way.

West (Lahrmann)	North (de Roos)	East (Plejdrup-Meister)	South (Arts)
			2H*
P	2N	3S	P
P	X	All Pass

Pretty sure 2H was meant as a precision 2D, showing 4=4=1=5 minus 1 card (in other words, 3-suited with short diamonds). 2N was then asking, over which East made a 3S bid at favorable vulnerability to try to disrupt NS from getting to their heart fit. Unfortunately, there was no heart fit: instead, NS ended up doubling 3S and setting it 3 tricks, netting +500 for NS. Since this scores lower than 3N making by NS, the 3S bid was theoretically a success. It can be very scary, though: With the spades behind him and clubs splitting unevenly, 3S can be dangerous even at favorable vulnerability. However, the void in hearts and 6-5 shape make it a practical bid despite the flaws.

At the other table, the auction featured West preempting the auction instead of East.

West (B. Dehaye)	North (Bilde)	East (C. Dehaye)	South (Schaltz)
			1C
2H	3D	P	3N
P	P	X	P
P	5D	All Pass

Sensing a misfit from NS, East decided to double 3N, reasoning that without a suit running, 9 tricks would be very hard to come by. Unfortunately, 3N was just cold: because the hand was a misfit, EW had no suit to attack, so NS have enough time to utilize North's good diamond suit. With partner favorable, the double seems to ask a lot from partner: although it could work at times, asking partner not to lead a potentially fatal heart, pass seems to be a safer option. Fortunately for EW, North's club singleton convinced him that the defense could run a bunch of clubs. So, he decided to save their partnership into a better game by jumping to 5D. This choice had reasons pointing towards it, but in the end, it didn't work out: unluckily, NS only had a 7-card diamond fit, and 5D went down 3 for -300. This board cost the Danish team 13 IMPs.